


Pillow Talk: Early Riser

by unspoken_and_wild



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Jones Brothers feels, Pillow Talk, sunrise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 12:45:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4392374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unspoken_and_wild/pseuds/unspoken_and_wild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killian always wakes up earlier than Emma.  Ungodly early.  After some thought, he tells Emma why he always wakes at dawn.  Turns out old habits are hard to break, especially when they were instilled by someone so important.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pillow Talk: Early Riser

**Author's Note:**

> I just have a very real need for these two to be blissfully happy in their domesticity. I am such a sucker for pillow talk and I know these two spend a lot of time in bed....so there has to be lots of it, right? I have this head-canon about Killian being a morning person and why. Couldn't help myself. Let's just go with this taking place in the six-weeks of peace in between 4a and 4b. I need some fluffy goodness to recover from some nervousness I have about the upcoming season, as well as some angsty fic I've been reading. BRING ON THE FLUFF.

Emma didn't even crack her eyes open.  She just felt the weight shift on Killian's side of the bed and flung a languid arm with as much effort as she could muster at this ungodly hour.  Her fingers barely grazed the waistband of his navy blue pajama bottoms, the ones with little white anchors on them.  They failed to find purchase and her arm fell with a soft thud to the mattress as Killian stood up and made his way to the window.  With a tired whine, she creaked, "It's so early, Killian, come back to bed." 

"Go back to sleep, Swan.  Just because I get up with the sun, doesn't mean you have to."  His hair was still mussed with bed head and his eyes were still squinting, adjusting to the new light glimmering into the room.

"But, why ARE you up? Do I need to explain to you the concept of _lazy Sunday_ again?" Her voice is slightly distorted from being muffled by the pillow she was planted in face down.  She remains unstirred, with her tousled blonde hair strewn about like some golden explosion.

"I grasp the concept, but that doesn't mean my routine should fall by the wayside.  A good sailor always wakes at first light.  You know I believe in good form." 

"I thought a pirate didn't have to answer to anyone? Except their girlfriends of course."  She sluggishly pats his side of the mattress with her still outstretched hand, reiterating her request.

"Aye, but I wasn't always a pirate.  I actually don't mind waking early.  There's a calm stillness to a sunrise.  I get to assess the conditions of the day, make my day's agenda,"  he turns his gaze from the window to the bed, "and in more recent memory, catch glimpses of the woman I love  while she's sound asleep."

Emma smiles and hums approvingly even though her eyes are still closed.

"Even if sometimes I find her snoring."

That's it. Emma's eyes flew open and she let out an incensed gasp. "I don't snore!"  She glares straight at Killian, standing backlit by the amber glow through the window, smug grin splitting his face.

"We'll not at the moment, love," he smirks, "but there have been mornings I've been roused before sunrise by  thunderous sounds beside me that made me wonder if the next foul curse or monster has come to claim Storybrooke."

Emma brushes right past his hyperbole and focuses her energy on the matter at hand. "It's still early and I'm off duty today.  There's no reason either of us should be out of bed right now."  She settles back down amongst the blankets, trying to look as cozy as possible to entice Killian back to her side.

The appeal is just too great.  Killian caves and joins her under the blanket.  He lies with his head on the pillow and his left arm under his head.  Emma snuggles in beside him with her head on his chest and her hand comfortably finding its place above his heart.

"Do you ever allow yourself to sleep in?" Emma asks, as her eyelids lower and her fingers draw lazy patterns along his chest hair.

"When you've lived as long as I have, you develop certain habits.  I've been waking up with the sun so long I suppose I'm used to it." There was an lightness to his voice, as if he had never given this behavior a second thought.  He paused as he racked his lengthy memory.  "I guess I actually have Liam to thank for that," he mused. "Until got promoted to captain, his bunk was always within an arm's reach of mine, a distance he chose to close very abruptly in the early mornings.  There were times I wanted to smack him right back, but it taught me discipline.  To this day I'm not sure how he knew the sun was rising.  The crew quarters didn't have any windows!" Killian chuckled softly.  He had a slightly bemused tone as if he'd stumbled across a memory he forgot existed. 

Killian had ample opportunities to learn about Emma's beginnings thanks to numerous family relations and figures from her past constantly making appearances in Storybrooke. 

Emma, on the other hand, has 300 years of history to discover about her pirate paramour.  She loves when he regales her with anecdotes from the various phases of his life. Her favorites were the casual, fond retellings of his boyhood antics with Liam, or dramatic reenacting of swashbuckling pirate adventures where some combination of charm, wit and swordsmanship brought him victory.

This was one chapter in Killian's life he very rarely cracked open.  His days in the King's Navy.  Emma was never one to voluntarily drag up unpleasant memories, hers or anyone else's, so she never asks.  Perhaps that's why she finds it so endearing when little remnants of those days peek through.

Even on a Sunday morning when they explicitly planned to sleep in.

Emma smiled and nuzzled a little closer into Killian's chest.  "He ran a tight ship, my brother. As captain, he expected everyone aboard to be up at dawn ready to receive the P.O.D," he paused, "That's plan of the day, love." He was on such a roll he had to stop and clarify the nomenclature that came so easily to him as memories came flooding back. "Liam was a born leader, loved by anyone who sailed under him.  He was disciplined, firm in his routines and held his crew to the same high standards.  But he always reminded us that each sunrise brought with it a new day, full of opportunities.  And what we chose do to with those opportunities was ours to define." 

Killian may not be proud of all of his days leading up to now; certainly he had an entire slew of regretful choices, mishandled opportunities. But it was hard to regret a single day if his choices led him here in this moment.  With the love of his life safely in his arms.  His reflection leads him to make a choice about this day in particular.  The sun may rise and begin its day, but he was going to savor this moment as long as possible.  That was a choice he would be proud to make over and over.


End file.
